HybridCars.com » Tesla Model S saleshttp://www.hybridcars.com
Auto alternatives for the 21st centuryTue, 03 Mar 2015 19:06:40 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.2Tesla On Track To Sell 50,000th Model S This Monthhttp://www.hybridcars.com/tesla-on-track-to-sell-50000th-model-s-this-month/
http://www.hybridcars.com/tesla-on-track-to-sell-50000th-model-s-this-month/#commentsMon, 20 Oct 2014 20:10:12 +0000http://www.hybridcars.com/?p=207242Tesla may have just announced the quickest 0-60 sedan, but just as notable is how Model S has sprinted from 0-50 – thousand sales that is – as it’s on track for 50,000 globally by the end of October. Estimated sales through the end of September are 46,928 according to various reports and Tesla’s quarterly […]

]]>Tesla may have just announced the quickest 0-60 sedan, but just as notable is how Model S has sprinted from 0-50 – thousand sales that is – as it’s on track for 50,000 globally by the end of October.

Estimated sales through the end of September are 46,928 according to various reports and Tesla’s quarterly shareholder letters through June. It’s believed the automaker will have delivered as many as 51,300-plus units before November 1, although there is room for error in the actual count.

That notwithstanding, it won’t be long now, and this shows the electric luxury performance sedan has grown its global market and maintained popular interest to accelerate sales on par with a far-cheaper Nissan Leaf.

It took established Nissan around two years, two months from December 2010 through its mid-February 2013 announcement of its 50,000th Leaf sale worldwide. The Model S costing two-four times more, could cross that milestone in only around one extra month.

The Model S was launched June 22, 2012 and it will have been around two years, three months when the approximately $72,000-$133,000 car – depending on configuration – equals the Leaf’s earlier sales tally.

The Leaf did struggle during 2012 and sales picked up after a 2013 price cut, and it’s now close to 150,000 after setting sales records all last year and this year. But Tesla actually raised its prices while other plug-in cars – including Chevy Volt, Mitsu i-MiEV, and Ford Focus Electric – have all been significantly slashed.

Remarkable also is Tesla only sold 200 Model S units to start with in its third quarter of 2012 because it was taking great care with production quality control, and sold just 2,450 in its next full quarter. Since then it sold around the 5,000-unit range the next three quarters, the 6,000 range two quarters after that, and nearly 7,600 units in the second quarter of this year.

Wiggle Room

As everyone following this space knows, Tesla does not quote monthly sales, so the quarterly statements are where it divulges deliveries. These through June 2014 and various news reports for 15 countries counting sales and registrations were used to get the total.

Confirmed by Tesla through June were 39,128 Model S deliveries, and outstanding is its report on third quarter 2014 sales for July, August, and September.

The company estimated it would sell 7,800 units for Q3 which would make for 46,928 through the end of September. Reports – cross checked where possible – place the actual Q3 estimate at 8,098 according to Brazil-based alternative energy enthusiast, plug-in car statistician, and HybridCars.com reader, Mario R. Duran.

If so, Tesla may have sold as many as 51,316 units by end of this month, and the exact day of 50,000 may go by otherwise undocumented.

Tesla’s largest market is the U.S., and the HybridCars.com Dashboard estimates 11,900 sales for Q3. Tiny Norway is second place and accounts for 3,535 according to reports. A question hangs over third-place China which the LA Times reported on Sept. 26 at 2,800 but with registrations not nearly lining up – only 432.

Tesla acknowledged to the Times the huge discrepancy, and it could have to do with not up-to-date registration records, and/or “scalpers” buying up new Model S sedans and stockpiling them to resell, thus they are not being registered.

China is the biggest outstanding mystery, but another source which routinely tracks plug-in sales also placed it at over 2,800 Q3 sales, so the imminent 50,000 milestone we believe is a safe, if not precise, call.

Bottom Line

Assuming published reports are close to accurate, it’s believed Tesla will have sold its 50,000th Model S as soon as one week from now, and may even have quietly crossed 50,000 already. But while people like to commemorate anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, and milestones, Tesla’s latest special date may be viewed as one more way marker toward a larger goal.

Tesla does not even see fit to put itself too closely under the microscope as other automakers do and report its month-by-month sales, but it is otherwise talking with its sales performance and loud and clear is its zero-emissions agenda.

Every Model S sold displaces one more gas-burning car that could have been on the road instead.

At the rate these 100-percent electric cars are proliferating – with Model X due next along with “D” models of the S, and Model 3 to follow – fuel savings and emissions elimination are accelerating quickly, just like the cars do themselves.

]]>http://www.hybridcars.com/tesla-on-track-to-sell-50000th-model-s-this-month/feed/0Tesla Sells 25,000th Model Shttp://www.hybridcars.com/tesla-sells-25000th-model-s-globally/
http://www.hybridcars.com/tesla-sells-25000th-model-s-globally/#commentsMon, 06 Jan 2014 05:51:17 +0000http://www.hybridcars.com/?p=110105Based on published reports from around the world, Tesla has now crossed the 25,000 unit sales mark – approximately 10-times the total estimated 2,500 or so unit production run of its 2008-2012 Roadster. Because Tesla does not report monthly sales, we are qualifying this assertion based on sales reports that are actually estimated at 25,353 […]

]]>Based on published reports from around the world, Tesla has now crossed the 25,000 unit sales mark – approximately 10-times the total estimated 2,500 or so unit production run of its 2008-2012 Roadster.

Because Tesla does not report monthly sales, we are qualifying this assertion based on sales reports that are actually estimated at 25,353 to 25,503 through December 2013.

What’s more, total global sales are believed somewhat higher due to unavailability of December sales reports in five European nations.

The all-electric Model S luxury performance sedan began sales in June 2012, and that year sold an estimated 2,400-2,555 units in the U.S., and 95 units in Canada.

With help from research by green-car advocate, and HybridCars.com reader, Mario R. Duran, we’ve counted published reports indicating Tesla sold at least 3,602 in Europe during 2013. Tesla also sold an estimated 18,650 in the U.S., 530 in Canada, the same year.

A conservative total is 25,353, and other estimates for U.S. sales range from 150 units lower, to 250 higher than our tally.

As mentioned, not all EU sales are accounted for through December. Our estimates for 2013 sales counts only through November in the following countries: Switzerland (166), Denmark (79), Austria (38), France (17). In Germany, 98 sales are counted though September.

Assuming some uncounted sales from Europe, Tesla may have sold as many as 26,000 globally.

]]>http://www.hybridcars.com/tesla-sells-25000th-model-s-globally/feed/0Will Tesla Model S Be America’s Best-Selling Plug-in Car in March?http://www.hybridcars.com/will-tesla-model-s-be-americas-best-selling-plug-in-car-in-march/
http://www.hybridcars.com/will-tesla-model-s-be-americas-best-selling-plug-in-car-in-march/#commentsMon, 25 Mar 2013 13:30:20 +0000http://www.hybridcars.com/?p=55911If you’ve watched the sales numbers the past couple months, it’s believed Tesla has been finishing a close second place to the Chevy Volt, and actually outselling many other more established hybrid cars, not to mention regular gas-powered luxury vehicles. Although Tesla does not officially release its numbers month after month, the HybridCars.com Dashboard estimated […]

]]>If you’ve watched the sales numbers the past couple months, it’s believed Tesla has been finishing a close second place to the Chevy Volt, and actually outselling many other more established hybrid cars, not to mention regular gas-powered luxury vehicles.

Although Tesla does not officially release its numbers month after month, the HybridCars.com Dashboard estimated 1,000 North American Model S sales in January to the Volt’s 1,140, and in February Tesla might have sold around 1,400 or more compared to the Volt’s 1,626.

A valid question now is whether March could actually see Tesla take a number-one sales spot in the budding U.S. plug-in car market.

Last week, Tesla’s George Blankenship, vice president, worldwide sales and ownership experience, divulged the company has been at full production capacity since December, and for three weeks prior to his blog post, 500 Model S units were being sold weekly. So far, these are all U.S. sales, and Tesla won’t be delivering outside the U.S. for maybe a couple more months.

Blankenship said he expected another record week to follow, which would mean a rate of around 2,000 or more per month.

Last year Chevrolet had a string of 2,000-plus-unit months in the U.S., and one just shy of 3,000, but the Volt costs around $40,000 more or less before subsidies. Including all fees, the Model S costs easily twice to three times that in the 85-kwh version, and for a start up selling a new technology at such a premium price, its performance has been noteworthy, and a 2,000-unit month would be impressive indeed.

In fact, if Tesla had sold 2,000 units in February, it would have been America’s top-selling plug-in car. It’s not believed this was the case, but it could well be this month.

And to further qualify the Model S sales performance, it also competes well against other mainstream hybrids and certainly other luxury segment hybrids and regular luxury cars.

If it had sold 2,000 last month, that would have placed it number seven out of over 40 U.S. market hybrids – significantly ahead of every German, Japanese and American-made luxury hybrid, and slotted between the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid that sold 1,441 units in February, and the Toyota Prius v, which sold 2,543.

Not hurting things a bit for Tesla is the stacked-up waiting list it began accruing some time ago. It has thousands of buyers waiting their turn in line which means it will sell all it can produce until that list starts to dwindle, assuming it does.

GM does have more production capacity, and for the past couple months built around 3,000 per month, but some of these were export-bound Chevy and Holden Volts, and Opel and Vauxhall Amperas.

Further, GM does have more volume potential for its Voltec variants, being cars with a lower price barrier to entry.

Nonetheless, Tesla has been giving the Volt all it can handle of late, and so we shall see if it actually is top dog this month. We know the number for GM to beat is somewhere around 2,000.

And even if the Volt does meet or exceed this, this could be a third month for Tesla to rank second-best selling electrified car in America.